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Monday, April 27, 2015

Washington's Spies: The Story of America's
First Spy Ring by Alexander Rose concerns itself with American espionage
activities during the American Revolution. This is a great history book that
expands from its base subject to shed light on various related aspects of the
Revolution. This work is the basis for the very good television series TURN.

While Rose’s book touches upon much of the spy work that
both sides engaged in during the war, its primary focus is a on a group that
was known as The Culper Ring. This
was a spy ring that was organized in Southern New York by
American Officer Benjamin Tallmadge. During most of the war, New York City was
the primary hub for British military operations. Rebel spies in the city passed
information across Long Island through key ring member Abraham Woodhull. The
information was then dispatched across the Long Island Sound to rebel-controlled
Connecticut and eventually to George Washington himself. The activities and interactions of the members of the ring are related in fascinating detail.

A great deal of this book is local history for me. A
large percentage of the activity that is described in this work takes place on
Long Island, NY, which is also my home. Much of the political, social and religious
culture of Long Island at the time is surveyed. In addition, a locally famous
raid that was led by Tallmadge is detailed in the book.

In 1780, spurred by intelligence supplied by the ring,
Tallmadge led a small force from Connecticut to Long Island across the Long
Island Sound. He landed near a beach that I often frequent. His mounted troops
rode across Long Island to attack a fort and a supply depot. The resulting
destruction of British provisions and supplies was a detriment to British
forces operating in New Your City. His route is marked locally and known as The
Tallmadge Trail. I live on this trail. His
small force proceeded down a road on which my house is now situated.

One aspect that makes this a history book of
distinction is that it expands beyond its primary subject to provide intriguing
and important insights into multiple aspects of the American Revolution and
early America. Diverse subjects such as the brutal nature of some areas and
subcultures of New York City, the religious aspects and conflicts relating to both
Rebels as well as Loyalists, etc. are explored. As someone who is interested the
American Revolutionary War period, I found this book to be a feast of
interesting concepts.

As I am often known to do, I will focus a little upon
just one of many points of this work. Rose argues that intelligence work in
which both sides engaged was different from, and in many ways unique to, the
American Revolution, as opposed to anything going on in Europe.

Rose explains how such spy craft was not as important
on the battlefields of the Old World. On European conflicts he writes.

“collecting
intelligence about the enemy’s movements was not of prime concern since there
were only certain, defined routes along which an army could travel, and
topographers could thus accurately predict how long a formation would take to
reach its destination”

and later,

“In
Europe, the mark of a great captain was not his talent for deception or for
divining intentions, but his ability to outmaneuver opponents on known ground
and defeating them in the field as they marched and wheeled in lines and
columns.”

Rose goes on to describe how the conflict in
America was different,

In
America’s vast geographical spaces, however, armies (and guerrillas) could
hide, live off the land, travel cross-country, appear out of nowhere, strike,
and vanish. Possessing advance or intimate knowledge of what the enemy was
doing, or was planning to do— the raison d’être of espionage— became of vital importance.

As the business of intelligence was distinctive
in America, Rose goes on to describe all sorts of innovations employed by the
Culper Ring and other rebel spies, as well as by their British opponents, including
invisible ink, complex and innovative codes, economic sabotage through the use
of counterfeiting, etc. This is but one of the many interesting and
enlightening areas explored in this work.

This is a suburb book. It is well written and
researched. It tells an interesting story. It expands into a host of relevant and
diverse subjects. I highly recommend this for anyone interested in the American
Revolutionary War era, the history of New York City and Long Island, or spy
craft in general.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

I just completed a reread of James Joyce’sPortrait
of the Artist as a Young Man. This book is the epitome of a Bildungsroman. It
is the story of the young Stephen Dedalus. This novel seems me to be a modernist
archetype and, in my opinion, a great work.

We get
a glimpse into Stephen’s mind from his earliest childhood. The novel follows
him through his adolescence and on through his early adulthood. Stephen is a
sensitive person, a thinker and something of a misfit. We see the protagonist’s
mind develop from a very early age. As he moves through his teenage years, though
surrounded by pious religious influences, Stephen begins to frequent prostitutes
and is wracked with guilt and a fear of divine punishment. Though he eventually
rediscovers his moral bearings, he later turns down an opportunity to join the priesthood
and begins an intellectual estrangement from both religion and nationalism. We also
see Stephan’s reaction to his early love as well as his contradictory and
complex feelings for her.

Stephen
is a budding intellectual and poet. Included in the narrative are pages and
pages of philosophical ruminations on aesthetics that include numerous references
to various artists, writers, and philosophers. I found these ponderings to be
interesting and worthwhile; however, such eccentricities will likely bore some
readers.

In
my opinion, Joyce has successfully captured the inner and outer workings of a
male adolescent’s mind here. I judge this success based partially upon experience
and partially upon observation. The accolades that this work has earned are
well deserved. There really is something special about Joyce’s portrayal of
Stephen’s inner being. From the language used to portray the workings of his mind
to the various stages of his youth to the way our protagonist reacts to the
outside world, there is something very realistic as well as aesthetically
pleasing here.

There
are actually many writing styles contained in this work, but much of the novel
is told in a stream of consciousness style. Other parts, perhaps reflecting the
way in which Stephen thinks at various times, are presented in more or less
straight prose but with no apostrophes to indicate dialogue. The text ranges from the simple to the
difficult and dense. This novel, from the writing to the plot structure, is
very unconventional, and folks looking for a story told in the traditional
style might find this disappointing.

Dream of the Goat - Fiends

One
can write volumes about this book. Instead of looking at general themes, I want
to mention one of several extraordinary passages. At one point in the narrative,
Steven is wracked with guilt and fear. He has been visiting prostitutes, yet he
is terrified of the description of hell and the punishment that he believes
awaits him as a result of his transgressions. This leads him to have a strange,
phantasmagoric dream described below.

"He saw.

A field of stiff weeds and thistles and
tufted nettle-bunches. Thick among the tufts of rank stiff growth lay battered
canisters and clots and coils of solid excrement. A faint marshlight struggling
upwards from all the ordure through the bristling grey-green weeds. An evil
smell, faint and foul as the light, curled upwards sluggishly out of the
canisters and from the stale crusted dung. Creatures were in the field: one, three,
six: creatures were moving in the field, hither and thither. Goatish creatures
with human faces, hornybrowed, lightly bearded and grey as India-rubber. The
malice of evil glittered in their hard eyes, as they moved hither and thither,
trailing their long tails behind them. A rictus of cruel malignity lit up
greyly their old bony faces. One was clasping about his ribs a torn flannel
waistcoat, another complained monotonously as his beard stuck in the tufted
weeds. Soft language issued from their spittleless lips as they swished in slow
circles round and round the field, winding hither and thither through the
weeds, dragging their long tails amid the rattling canisters. They moved in
slow circles, circling closer and closer to enclose, to enclose, soft language
issuing from their lips, their long swishing tails besmeared with stale shite,
thrusting upwards their terrific faces... Help! He flung the blankets from him
madly to free his face and neck. That was his hell. God had allowed him to see
the hell reserved for his sins: stinking, bestial, malignant, a hell of
lecherous goatish fiends. For him! For him! "

I
love the imagery contained in this passage. The goat-fiends seem to represent
satanic forces circling Stephen’s soul. Unsurprising, there are six of them, as
six is a number often associated with Satan and evil. The other obvious
symbolic aspect to the goat image is that of sexuality and lust, which is the
deadly sin that is plaguing Stephen. The
weeds and sharp plants as well as the horrible odor all add to the menacing and
pernicious atmosphere.I think that the reference to “soft language”
might be important. Perhaps this is an allusion to the tempting, pleasant and
alluring nature of sin.

I
must admit to a strange attraction to such horror filled passages. I tend to
like the description of grotesque scenes and creatures, especially when
portrayed so artistically, meaningfully and symbolically. The mood created by
the words here seems perfect. I also find the writing in this passage to be
very imaginative. Joyce has painted a brilliant picture of Stephen’s view on
sin that is drawing him into “stinking,
bestial, malignant” hell.

Finally,
I also find this passage particularly unusual in its unique depiction of hell.It actually contrasts with the more
conventional fire and suffering version presented by a priest earlier in the
narrative.

This
work is an all-time classic. I have not even scratched the surface above. The
portrayal of Stephen’s mind and his young years is magnificent in so many ways.
The dream described above is only a small sampling of that. By completing this
book, I have finished all of the preparation that I had planned for my next
project and I am now reading Ulysses.